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Walk and work

Posted Apr 09 2013 11:28pm

My set up

I run around 40-50 miles/week, swim a couple of times each week, and when the mood strikes, also incorporate cycling into my routine. I also walk my daughter to/from school most days and take the dog for short walks. That’s seemingly quite a bit of movement, and compared to most Americans, I suppose it is. But really, if the remainder of my day is spent sitting, or standing at my desk , is it enough movement? I’m not so sure.

There’s a reason we have large glute muscles, and that reason isn’t so that they can be sat upon. Our bodies are designed to move, plain and simple. When I connected with LifeSpan Workplace Solutions on Twitter recently and we struck up a conversation, one thing led to another. I’ve now joined a growing number of people who are walking on treadmills while they work.

Since I already had a standing desk, I simply needed the treadmill deck, which we moved underneath my existing “desk” (really a simple shelf we built into the wall). LifeSpan offers plenty of other models that incorporate the actual desktop for those not already using a standing desk.

Now, a couple of weeks into using the desk, I can say I like it. I set the speed at something quite sedate–around 1.2 to 1.5 usually–and get to work. I began with just about an hour/day of this to get used to it, but now I hop on the treadmill any time I am going to be at my computer (unless a sunny spring day draws me out to the deck to work!). The movement is slow enough that it doesn’t interfere with any typing I do and I’m also able to reach things on other sections of my desk as needed.

According to LifeSpan, everyone should be aiming for 10,000 steps per day in their daily lives. The blue-tooth enabled monitor allows you to track your treadmill steps if you so choose to see where you fall in that spectrum. You can also get a readout of calories burned, the distance and time that you have walked. Me being the non-feedback kind of gal that I am have yet to pay attention to all this, but it would be interesting to utilize it sometime. For those who really like data tracking, LifeSpan offers its online LifeSpan Fitness Club where you can upload your data, set goals, and track progress.

Since I’m just getting started with the treadmill desk, this is the first of two posts I’ll be doing. I plan to write an update in a couple of weeks to let you know how I’m liking it and maybe, just maybe, I’ll start tracking some of my movement on it as well. And of course, being an obsessive runner, I’m going to be paying attention to whether or not I get the added bonus of faster recovery from these easy steps–I’m betting I will.